Budget Question

When we first got engaged, I thought surely the national average of $30k was for those having large or fancy weddings. Surely ours would be much less because we're keeping it small and don't want anything extravagant. Wow was I wrong! We're coming in right at the national average of $30k for our 65-person wedding in VT.

I think 10k - 12k is a reasonable budget.

We initially started out thinking $14k. As time has gone on, that budget has increased to $23k-$25k - yikes! Sometimes I wish we would have held to the $14k range, but we wouldn't have gotten everything we wanted, while cutting corners where we felt comfortable doing so. FH moto is, 'it's just money!'.

Ours was 24K total for 20 guests. You can definitely stick to that budget, but your venue plays heavily into that, along with your floral budget, and amount of guests. Good luck!

Everything adds up faster than you think, especially when you add tax, fees, gratuity, etc. That alone ended up being 10% of my budget.

I originally anticipated 5K and we're looking at 12-13K including fees, etc. We are trying to cut where we can (which leaves us with 12K budget). Our biggest expense ended up being our venue (rental house for 3 days + event fee) for 5K, where I originally budgeted 1K.

We will be cutting costs with photography (fewer hours and only 1 shooter), no DJ, simple decor, DIY invites and accessories (which saved $100's), and DIY pre-ceremony cocktail hour. Pick a few things that are vital to the feel of your wedding (like your dress) and budget the rest.

Wow, I think we started at the same place hoping to keep our overall budget at 7k and it has definitely doubled when it’s all said & done.

We're in South Jersey and we initially thought we'd spend under $25K but as we started planning we realized that isn't really doable with what we want, so we reevaluated and we've set a budget around 40-45K which a good portion is our venue which we're using for ceremony, cocktail hour, and reception (which includes all food and drink including open bar and bartenders, the ceremony fees, all tables, chairs, linens, and a few other details). We are fortunate that both of our families will be able to help us significantly to help eat that difference but it will still be the most expensive party I'll ever throw.

View Quoted Comment Ohhh! Do you have any good vineyard or estate type places? We’re by Frederick MD but don’t mind the drive!!

It's so crazy how expensive weddings are!

"It entirely depends" is the annoying but true answer. Guest count will probably affect your budget the most. Obviously a small guest count can get away with a smaller budget much easily that if you have to feed and find venues for a high count.

And of course quality. My wedding is only 38 guests but we knew we wanted it to be decently high end so we set a budget of around 30k and are still probably going to go over that (Los Angeles, phew!) We were considering just doing a restaurant dinner reception, which would have been much cheaper and I think would have still been lovely. Ultimately, we decided to go the private room route which is much more expensive.

I know I live in a very expensive area, so unfortunately I don't have a ton of reference for other areas, but I did read that the average wedding cost in the US was around $34k, I believe. Crazy, I know!

It's kind of like an estate? We are getting married at Fairfax Hall Dining Room in Waynesboro, VA. It is an old early 1900's hotel that was renovated to have an event space on the bottom floor and apartments on the upper levels. Beautiful grounds in front of the building as well. They are a listed vendor on WW (which is how we found them) but have some additional photos on their website. Good luck on your venue search!

Check out the book/website for A Practical Wedding. It can help you to prioritize your vision... The must-haves (sounds like the dress is a must), and the areas where you're willing to compromise that aren't that important to you.

View Quoted Comment Thanks Kim. We’re also going a bit outside the city and have found better options and keeping our list as small as possible. It’s crazy how quickly things add up.

View Quoted Comment I wish I had that motto! My cheap self is freaking out, haha.

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Details on the videographer, I am getting married here in Houston as well and it has been hard to find a reasonable one. Congrats!

Budgets are COMPLETELY dependent on where you get married, and what kind of wedding you have.

DH and I had a fairly simple wedding, for where we got married, but we got married in New York City.

So, our budget was a splashy budget for most of the rest of the country... while being waaaaaaaaaaaay below average for our area.

There's a "Cost Calculator" under "Planning Tools", above. Use that to get a good idea of what the average of things is in your area.

View Quoted Comment Hi I'm in Houston as well and just starting do mind sharing your videographer and location?

I am like Rebecca above and having my wedding in NYC. It's above the national average, but I shop for local artists and use the cost calculator and several budget and planning tools. Right now I'm 5k under (or have 5k for padding), and I've had a few life changes including a date change.

I would recommend you and your FH each list your top 3 priorities and negotiate to be on the same page. Keep confident that whatever you two pick will be within your vision, and don't let anyone pressure you. Who knows, maybe your FH will have talents that will greatly help. For example, I only like spreadsheets and budgets, while my man adds personal touches and reminds me to have fun.

If you're not tied to NC, I know glam weddings at Las Vegas hotels can fall within your budget and some, and the licensing takes 24 hours. Best wishes!!

I live in Pittsburgh, PA. We wanted to stay around 10k but will end up spending closer to 20k smh

I think $10k is a reasonable amount. For us since our wedding is on a weekday we saved some money but not by much because of catering. But the venue and everything else was about $1400 not including my dress & little things here and there for ourselves for the special day. We definitely “shopped around” and we are at almost 8k. But have everything booked. Good luck and remember it’s You and your future husbae’s special day make it about what YOU TWO want. ( I say that because I had overwhelmed moments trying to please everyone else, when they are there to celebrate us plus it’s coming out of our pocket as well) we are putting more into our honeymoon though.

Hey there! We are in Charlotte NC and initially planned for 50k but are now looking at 60k for 125 guests. Hope this helps!

I started with a $5k "budget" (I am in socal) as well but that was before I actually understood how much things cost. My photographer and food alone are a combined $6k, and that is for a 60 guest backyard wedding. Everything I have read says do not skimp on important things like photographer, food and entertainment. Everything else is "extra", but it looks like I will end up at around $10-12k as well. So you're not alone! To me, it's worth going over budget if it's something not completely frivolous.